Romulus
The Romulus was a specialized Warbird-Class Republic Cruiser developed by Jor Halcyon early in his career. The ship was equipped with a state of the art cloaking device which put up a nearly perfect cloaking field. The only way it could be detected was by sensitive gravity sensors. Jor fixed that by installing a modified gravity well generator which fooled gravity sensors by masking the ships gravity signature behind a much larger (several kilometers in diameter even) gravity field. Jor spent hundreds of thousands of credits on the ship making it's cloaking field as perfect as he could possibly make it. History The Romulus started as a Warbird-Class Republic Cruiser fresh off the docks of Kuat Drive Yards. It was purchased by Jor Halcyon who used it as his flagship for several years. Over the course of his ownership he modified the light cruiser heavily. He extended the ships computer systems to allow for a ship board AI, began work on it's stealth systems and was constantly searching for possible new upgrades to it's engines. Jor became nearly obsessed with making the ship as stealthy as possible, spending hundreds of thousands of credits, if not millions at Crazy O's Shipyards to purchase upgrades and refinements to it's systems. The reflec coating, sensor jammers, cloaking device, even it's main engines got an overhaul. No part of the ship went untouched by Jor's hand as he worked to have the ship made into the foremost stealth ship in the galaxy. The crew often joked that the only original peices of equipment on the ship were the doors. The Romulus became one of the most deadly ships in the galaxy. Able to sneak up on a target under a nearly perfect cloak and then let loose with multiple warheads, turbolasers and a disruptor canon blast at close range. It took part in several major battles under Jor Halcyon's direct command or under the command of the United Systems Federation leader known as Celestia. Some time after Jor left for the unknown regions, the ship was lost. No record of where it went or who owned it when it was lost was ever found. Service to the Mandalorians Eventually it found it's way into the hands of Davros Ordo, a Mandalorian opperating a group of other Mandalorian mercenaries out in wild space. It was crewed by a group these Mandalorians and some Corellians who were fleeing the massive nuclear attack on their homeworld. This crew opperated the Romulus almost as if it were a pirate vessel, attacking ships and stealing cargo. The Mandalorians made several modifications to her weapon systems, making sure they were as effecient as possible. They kept the turbolasers updated with as much modern technology as they could get their hands on and all the warhead launchers have been modified so that they can fire more modern proton torpedoes. Changing Hands Eventually though, Davros fell on hard times and he sold ownership of the ship to Princes Kitana, who later became Empress Kitana. Davros and his men stayed on board to crew the ship, but they no longer owned it. It quickly changed hands after that however to that of Elisa Sadna, clone of Empress Kitana. She used the vessel as her personal cruiser for a time, using it mostly for transportation. It remained with Elisa until the ship was stolen off Zeltros by one Killbo the Hutt. Killbo didn't maintain possession of the ship for long though, for it was again stolen, this time by Samantha Aran while on a rescue mission to Tatooine. The ship remained with her for a short time until it was again purchased by Jedi Master Zordon. Stealth Systems The Romulus has a wide range of stealth systems to keep it hidden from the enemy. The ship has been extensivly modified to maximize it's stealth and hamper the efforts of enemy electronic sensor systems. From a cloaking device, down to it's very paint job, the Romulus is all about staying hidden. Cloaking device The Romulus is equipped with a Stygium Cloaking device which enables it to become completely invisible to both the eye and most sensors. The exception to this is sensitive gravity sensors which can pick up the slight gravity field the ship has as well as the fluctuations it's artificial gravity projects on existing gravity wells. This weakness in it's Cloaking field is offset through the use of a Gravity well projector which has been modified to project a massive, randomized gravity field, rather then a single focused point. The randomization and size of the field makes it impossible to pick out the ships slight gravity signature within the larger field. Paint Job Without the cloaking device the ship is still stealthy as it's hull is painted in pitch black Reflec, a light bending polymer that was nearly invisible to all but the most determined scans. At a distance it's nearly impossible to see against the black of space. Only by watching it move against the stars can it's aproximate position and coarse be determined. The only part of it's hull that isn't painted black are words on either side of the bow painted in crimson which read "End of All Hope." Force Invisiblity The ship is also hidden from force users. Rather then the more commonly used Ysalamiri the ship's inner hull was lined with a thin covering of Taozin skin. The Taozin were taken from an ancient sith research vessel found floating through deep space near Thule. The worms were killed and skinned at Thule and later installed on the Romulus in the shipyards above Ilium. The Taozin skin renders the entire ship invisible to those looking for the ship through the Force. Similarly, the ship can not be attacked directly via the Force for the same reason. Force users on board the Romulus find using the force difficult, especially to influence something outside of the ships hull, but it is possible. Emmission Conservation When cloaked, the ship engages a conservation system which keeps all the ships emmissions from being expelled from the vessel. The conservation system can be run continuously for 3 hours before it must be vented for the saftey of the ship. The ship however does not need to decloak to vent the system but it may give the ships aproximate position away. Firing the Disruptor Cannon drastically accelerates the rate at which the ship must be vented. Modifications Hull The Hull of the Romulus is not the standard hull of the Warbird Cruiser. It's plasteel surface was removed, stripped down to the durasteel primary hull. The reflec coating is painted over the primary hull and while it offers terrific stealth to the ship, it offers very little in the way of actual protection. Her hull was thickened around the engine housing and disruptor cannon to provide additional support for those units. The thicker and harder armor around the engine allows for a greator acceleration threshold and greater support for the ships frame when at high speeds. Similarly, the thicker hull around the disruptor cannon supports the ships bow when it fires the powerful weapon. The thicker hull helps absorb more of the tremendous heat of the weapon so that the gun itself doesn't overheat. Weapons Aside from the disruptor cannon, her weapons are still fairly similar to the original Warbird specs. She has 6 heavy turbolaser cannons supported at the ends of her wings. The only major modification to these systems were a modernization overhaul done by Davros Ordo, replacing the turbolasers with more modern turbolasers and an updated tracking mechanism allowing them to move slightly on a ball joint mount. With the new mount, the guns can turn and track enemy ships anywhere within a 30 degree cone in front of the ship. Her Proton torpedo launchers were updated so that they can carry and fire more advanced proton torpedoes. The modifications were minor and dealt mostly with the auto loading system for the torpedoes. She still has six launchers, 4 in front and 2 in back. Her ACP repeater Point Defence System is the only thing thats had little done to it. Aside from standard maintenance upgrades and updated software, the ACP guns have changed little. They still protect the ship from fighters in close proximity and offer another defensive option against incoming missiles. Disruptor Cannon One of the first upgrades that Jor Halcyon performed on the ship was the addition of the Disruptor Cannon. He had the Long range turbolaser system removed and put the Disruptor Cannon in it's place. The disruptor canon has a range of less than 2 kilometers, but is a devastating weapon, especially against unshielded targets. Hull and armor vaporize causing massive pressure explosions within the target. A single shot from the cannon could cause a Corellian Corvette's shields to fail and cause massive damage to the ship. Against larger targets it's not as useful but still devastating. The disruptor cannon has two major faults. First and foremost is it's incredibly short range. No other ship in the fleet could use a disruptor to such effect because most ships you can see coming before they get within the spitting distance of 2 kilometers. It's second fault was that when fired it causes the cloak on the bow to fail for 1.37 seconds. Only a small portion of the ship is visible for a short time, but it still gives the ships position away whenever the disruptor canon is fired. Engines Her engines have undergon extensive upgrades. So much so that very little of the original Kuat Drive Yards engines remain. Jor added extensive supports to the engine to cut down on vibration to the rest of the ship and allow for greater acceleration. When Davros Ordo owned the vessel it's engines were given a complete overhaul by the Corellians who worked in engineering. They replaced much of the parts with Corellian Engineering Company parts and streamlined engine effeciency. Advanced heat sinks and coolant systems were included later on which kept the engines from heating up allowing for longer periods at which the ship can stay at it's maximum output. Along with her less than specified mass, the Romulus can achive speeds about 87% faster than the average warbird. Hyperdrive The Hyperdrive for the Romulus has also been upgraded extesnivly over time. Starting with Jor, the original hyperdrive was replaced with one of Corellian design not long after it was purchased. The Corellian hyerdrive decreased it's Class to .75 and after years with the Mandalorians and Corellian crew it was further modified until it's Class became a .5. It's secondary hyperdrive was replaced with a Class 2.